Abscission [Ab*scis"sion], / n. [L. abscissio. See {Abscind}.] 1. The act or process of cutting off. ``Not to be cured without the abscission of a member.'' --Jer. Taylor. 2. The state of being cut off. --Sir T. Browne. 3. (Rhet.) A figure of speech employed when a speaker having begun to say a thing stops abruptly: thus, ``He is a man of so much honor and candor, and of such generosity -- but I need say no more.''

The above is from a site that I have lost in bouncing around tonight. If I can dig it up again, I'll put the link in.

Anyway, abscission is such a cool term! Wouldn't we call what we do here when we write and try to explain, and then get almost to the end, but end up with the word 'but'? Wouldn't that be a form of abscission? I'd go ahead and explain why I think it might be abscission and bore you all to death, but.

The verb form, abscise and another 'apo' word, apoptosis are also rather common in medical jargon. It seems to me that tsuwm's word aposiopesis (whew!) and abscission in the third meaning that WW has proferred, are synonyms. Oui et non?

Here's from that same site--and I still don't have the url, although I copied out the list:

Aposiopesis [Ap`o*si`o*pe"sis] (?; 277), / n. [L., fr. Gr. ?, from ? to be quite silent.] (Rhet.) A figure of speech in which the speaker breaks off suddenly, as if unwilling or unable to state what was in his mind; as, ``I declare to you that his conduct -- but I can not speak of that, here.''

That site is Webster 1913 out-of-copyright dictionary. It's all over the Web, lots of copies. Just look for "abscission Webster" or some such and you'll probably get them all. The giveways are how the Greek got turned into ? in the Web-ify-ing, and the way they quote "Jer." and "Sir T."

Looking at the two different definitions, I fail to see any difference. Dear WW: a suggestion: give an example of a rhetorical device, and see how long it takes members to name the device. That could be quite challenging.

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